Couple: Craigslist.org ad led to assault

SEATTLE - The listing looked innocuous enough: Someone was looking to sell a 2002 Cadillac on the Seattle-Tacoma section of Craigslist.org. But an Oregon couple who responded to the posting say they instead found themselves the victims of an assault and attempted robbery.

When David and Marilyn Eby of Canby, in Clackamas County, Ore., contacted the seller from the Craigslist posting in August, the woman said she would be willing to drive her car from Tacoma to the Ebys' home, according to Marilyn Eby. The couple gave her their address.

"That was a big mistake," Marilyn Eby said.

The couple then decided it would be better to meet the seller in a public place, and they rearranged the Aug. 30 meeting to take place in Portland.

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The seller never showed up, Marilyn Eby said. After waiting a half-hour, the Ebys called the woman's cell phone. They arranged to meet at a retirement center in Canby. But again, they couldn't find the seller. "We had a really bad feeling," Marilyn Eby said.

When the Ebys returned home, they saw several garbage cans had been lined up to barricade the lane leading to their house. David Eby got out of the truck to move the cans, at which point the couple saw a masked man running toward them, carrying an iron club or large pipe, Marilyn Eby said.

David Eby ran into the truck, and the man smashed a truck window, causing a cut on David Eby's face. The couple then drove to a neighbor's house.

Nothing was taken, but Marilyn Eby believes "we were just set up to get robbed."

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating, urges the public not to give their home addresses to strangers they encounter on the Internet.